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This doctrine is often explained by both the Latin and the Greek
Fathers.[1743] Christ accomplished our redemption, they say,
by way of a true sacrifice, which He offered to God on the cross, as
priest and victim, and by a true vicarious atonement He paid the debt
owing to God, but not to the devil. This satisfaction is
superabundant and universal. In the above-mentioned work, precisely
as regards vicarious satisfaction in the strict sense, we find the
testimonies of St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin, Origen,
St. Cyprian, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Athanasius, St.
Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Prosper, and St.
Gregory the Great.[1744]
The prominent texts are the following.
St. Clement of Rome says: "Christ gave His blood for
us."[1745] He also says: "Because of His love for us, our
Lord Jesus Christ, by God's will, gave His blood for us, His
flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls."[1746]
St. Ignatius of Antioch says: "Christ died for us, that through
faith in His death, we might escape death."[1747] In another
epistle he says: "The Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus
Christ, which suffered for our sins."[1748]
St. Polycarp says: "Jesus Christ, "who bore our sins in His
own body on the tree, '[1749] but for our sake that we might
live in Him, He endured all things."[1750]
St. Justin says: "The Father willed that His Christ take upon
Himself the maledictions of the whole human race, and the Father also
willed Him to suffer these things, namely, crucifixion and death, so
that by His bruises the human race might be healed."[1751]
St. Cyprian says: "He alone can pardon sins committed against
Him, who took upon Himself our sins, who suffered for us, whom God
delivered up for our sins."[1752]
St. Athanasius says: Christ "in the body that He took to
Himself, or in offering it as sacrifice and immaculate victim for
death, immediately averted death from all alike, by offering it for
others."[1753]
St. Hilary says: "Therefore He offered Himself in sacrifice to
death for those under the curse of the law, that it might be removed,
willingly offering Himself as victim to God the Father, so that, by
His becoming a voluntary victim, the curse... might be taken
away."[1754]
St. Basil says: "It was necessary for the Lord to experience
death for all, and so justify all in His blood by having become a
propitiation for the human race."[1755]
St. Gregory of Nazianzus says: "By Christ's suffering on the
cross, ... we have been renewed, ... by the celestial Adam we
are again saved."[1756]
St. John Chrysostom says: "Although we were subject to the
sentence of condemnation, Christ freed us."[1757]
St. Ambrose says: "The Lord Jesus offered His death for the
death of all men; He shed His blood for the blood of the whole human
race."[1758]
St. Jerome says: Christ "was wounded for our iniquities... so
that, having become a curse for us, He might free us from the
curse."[1759]
St. Augustine says: "Christ, though innocent, took upon Himself
our punishment, so that thereby He might atone for our guilt and also
put an end to our punishment."[1760] In another work, he
says: "By His death, indeed, by the one true sacrifice offered for
us, whatsoever sins... He purged, abolished,
extinguished."[1761]
Therefore it can be said concerning the reality and effects of
redemption, that the Fathers are unanimous in attributing this
redemption not only to Christ's example, but also to His merits,
satisfaction, and sacrifice on the cross. They do not either disagree
among themselves as witnesses of tradition, although in their
explanations some, such as the Greek Fathers, insist on the
sanctifying power of the Incarnation, whereas others, especially the
Latin Fathers, stress the passion and death of Christ. Sometimes
Origen declares that the price of our redemption was paid to the
devil.[1762] But elsewhere he professes the true
doctrine.[1763] The same is to be said of St. Gregory of
Nyssa. This theory of payment to the devil was already refuted at the
end of the third century and condemned as blasphemous. The common
teaching is that sin is strictly committed only against God; hence the
price of liberation from sin must be paid to God alone. Nevertheless
it remains true that by redemption man is freed from the slavery of the
devil.[1764]
From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, the theological thesis
on the redemption gradually took shape under the doctrinal direction of
St. Anselm and St. Thomas. According to St.
Anselm,[1765] our redemption was accomplished through the
satisfaction whereby Christ freely paid our debts by repairing the
wrong done to God, and through His merits whereby He restored the
good things we lost. This doctrine manifestly has its foundation in
Sacred Scripture, and therefore was generally admitted. But St.
Anselm exaggerated the necessity of adequate redemption after sin, not
sufficiently acknowledging that God could have freely condoned the
offense, or even have accepted imperfect satisfaction.
This exaggerated view was gradually corrected by Hugo of St.
Victor, Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, and St.
Bonaventure, who prepared the way for St. Thomas to elaborate the
complete and sound synthesis that was afterward commonly accepted. It
is this synthesis that must now be explained.
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